If you ever have any question regarding one of the rules listed here, feel free to PM me or Cloudbringer, the other moderator that monitors this forum’s activities.

1. Keep games in a PG-13 setting. This is basically saying to remember that we will not tolerate pornography to be played-out, including rape or other related incidents. For more information on the specifics of this rule, read this.
This rule also applies to keeping extreme profanity out of a game or discussion.
2. A game is where you and your friends play “in-character” dialog with or against one another. If you must communicate outside this mode, use OOC to stand for “out-of-character”. It helps people know what is a game and what is real.

3. Thread length of games. A game can last as many threads as you want, but each thread must be stopped at 300 posts, to start a new one. A moderator will lock the game when it is full, so that no more posts can be made to the old one. This cannot be expected to be perfect, so if you go over one or two posts, it is no big deal, but please try to start a new thread at 300 posts.

4. Be nice and play fair. If you are causing trouble then the moderators will deal with you. If you cannot play fair then you do not belong with us. If a DM makes a call on his game that he invented…the Moderators will honor that DM’s call. If you are causing trouble for other gamers, you could be suspended from the website. Read more information about this here and here.

5. No Spam. No General Conversation. We want games and stories on this forum, not idle chatter. I am lenient on this rule based on circumstance. If you are new here and looking for help on how to play here...that is fine but once you have been made aware of the rules, I expect you to do the right thing. I understand that special circumstances occur, and if I can see a valid reason for you posting a non-game related thread, I will leave it alone. Resort to Rule #2 if you are in a game and need to say something out of character. Don't abuse this rule, however...as it angers the other players.

6. Enforcement of the Rules. Moderators of this forum have authority to delete, edit, or lock any content that is posted here without notification if the content is found out-of-place or against a forum guideline. Notice that these rules are <u>in addition to</u> the Terms of Service that you read upon joining our forum.
</font>
================================================== =============================

<font color=skyblue>The following links are reference threads that I used to build this set of rules. It contains all the thread links to any rule that has been placed on this forum. Enjoy!

Although there are no strict general rules covering all the RPGs, most of the games require you to roleplay a character you created, instead of acting yourself. Of course, you can model a character after yourself if you like, or adapt your posting style to have that character play from a first person perspective. There are also games where it is the other way around, and you are assuming the role of, say, a commander of an army.

Game settings range from modern-day restaurants to medievil fantasy towns to futuristic science fiction space ships, and include everything else you can come up with. Activities range from questing for an item through wandering aimlessly in the desert or jungle, to sitting and chatting and possibly even telling tales by the campfire.
In-game rules differ from thread to thread, some closely follow the DnD rules, complete with a dungeon master rolling dice behind the monitor, others are only roughly guided by them. Still other games trust players to use common sense in deciding what can and cannot be done. Then there are those with home-made rules which are usually explained in the first post, the list goes on.
Some games follow a closely designed campaign, others are partially or completely freestyle.

As you can see, there are countless ways of playing and setting up games.
As a new player, the best way of getting experience is to just dive in and watch what others do, before designing your own style. Imitation can be good, stealing the best ideas and throwing in some of your own is better.

Aside from game rules, there are some forum rules. Ask Larry or Cloudbringer to give you a full list if you will, but here are the most important ones.

1) Whatever is in the TOS applies in this forum too. For example, you must mind your language, even when you are playing someone else. In your actions, remember that this is a family forum, meant to be suitable for readers of all ages. And so on.

2) The originator of the (original) thread is gamemaster by default. Much like a moderator on the Ironworks, his or her decisions are final. If you disagree, you may try to convince him/her through PM, but otherwise you must accept what they say.
In addition, the originator may assign another player to act as gamemaster for the duration or part of the duration of the RP.

3) This is a role-playing forum, therefore almost any thread not meant to be role-played in doesn't belong here. Exceptions are non-roleplay threads by one of the 'local' mods, threads approved by them, and threads in which you recruit and store information on characters for one of your RPGs.

As I said, watch others and experiment to learn how best to roleplay here. To start in a thread, either write yourself in straight away, or PM the originator for permission.

On creating your own adventure, it is basically very simple. In your very first post you should provide the setting or introduction to your adventures, and maybe suggest some motivation or classes to potential players. More importantly, you should state the 'rules' you are using. If you don't provide rules, then people will post using common sense instead. These rules can be anything from the full DnD rules, with or without DM, to allowing only certain classes to play, to forbidding magic. Entirely up to you. One common rule is that you are not allowed to play with or kill another player's character without his or her permission.

I'll end with four terms used a lot in this forum. First are two kinds of thread. You have the open threads, which are threads anyone can join in without asking permission first. If they misbehave, the originator can still forbid them from playing or just ask them to change their character or playing style.
Second are the closed games, which are limited to certain or a certain number of players. You can usually see if a thread is open or closed by looking at the title. If nothing is mentioned, you can assume it is open, although it is politer to PM the originator first.

The other two terms are used within the RPGs. They are OOC and IC, meaning "Out Of Character" and "In Character". They are used to determine when the poster is acting and when he's giving his own opinion. For example, someone might post something like:
<font color=white>
OOC: That was a good post, player Y (player X was overused). Now let's go kill some more goblins!

IC: Tartanman drew his claymore, using both his hands to keep the heavy thing in the air. As the first grinning goblin approached, a heavy swing removed it's ugly head from the body, but several gallons of blood sprayed over Tartanman's kilt.
"NOOOOOOOOOOO," he screamed. "Not the kilt! Anything but the kilt!"

Enraged by the desacration of his garment, he jumped forward to kill some more of the foul scum.</font>

Do enjoy yourself !! </font>

<font color=skyblue> This Guideline verbage was originally created by Legolas, a member of this forum, in answer to a question from a new visitor on how to participate here.</font>

[ 07-05-2005, 12:06 AM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

Larry_OHF

07-05-2005 12:58 AM

<font color=skyblue>Further assistance for creating a new game and running it can be found at the link provided here.

To use any of these simply type {font color=" "} and close the tag with {/font} either at the end of the post or if you only want part of your post in a color put that in after the colored part. Put the color (hex or name) in between the quotation marks ("") and change the {} for <>. The quotation marks are optional, and can be left out.